


just like always

by PrincessReinette



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-19
Updated: 2013-05-19
Packaged: 2017-12-12 07:07:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/808723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessReinette/pseuds/PrincessReinette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"So I kept her. I bottled her up in a computer and left her on a shelf in a library like a brand new book I didn't have the courage to read." Eleven explains to Clara who River is. Sort of. Major spoilers for TNotD. R&R please! Rated T because I'm paranoid and there's a bit of language and... stuff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	just like always

“Wife?! You’re _married?”_

The Doctor sighed, and ran his hand through his hair, twirling in place as he looked for a way through the catacombs.

“Come now, Clara, who the hell did you think she was? My sister?”

“Better guess than _wife!_ Sorry if I didn’t take you for the married type!”

“Yeah, yeah, she was my wife. I told you she was an ex. She died. End of story.”

His eyes were stormy. Clara feared for a moment she had gone too far, but her curiosity was stronger than propriety.

“Then how the hell could I see her? How have I met her? If she’s really dead, then shouldn’t she be, oh, I don’t know, _gone?”_

The Doctor was suddenly very close to Clara. He pushed her back against the wall of the tunnel, knocking the wind out of her. She felt his breath at her ear and she was caught between a stab of fear and one of nearly painful desire.

“Listen very closely, Clara.” His voice was dangerous, his lips pressed to the shell of her ear. Clara tore her eyes from where his hands were slipping under the hem of her skirt and saw River herself behind them, looking on in curiosity and amusement. “River was killed trying to save me. Just like every other one of you humans. She tried so hard to _save_ me. But she couldn’t. No one can. Not even her, not River, who was born to _kill_ me. Not even my destroyer could be my savior. But she tried. And I fell for her. I loved her like I have loved no other. And _then she died._ And I was left alone, again, JUST LIKE ALWAYS!”

He pushed himself away from her, drawing a gasp from her lips as the pressure of his body against hers was lifted. His back was to her as he finished his speech.

“When she died I didn’t know who she was. I had no idea, but I knew she was important. So I kept her. I bottled her up in a computer and left her on a shelf in a library like a brand new book I didn’t have the courage to read. When I found her again she was fresh, and young, and she still knew more than I did. So yes, Clara Oswin Oswald, River Song is my wife, and she is dead. But as _you_ of ALL PEOPLE should know, the dead are not _gone._ ”

He was visibly shaking, his back still turned away. His jacket was torn from their fall earlier and Clara knew it would have to be repaired soon. She wondered why she cared.

“The dead are not gone, Clara, not for me. They are merely sleeping.”

He disappeared down the corridor without another word, leaving his shell-shocked companion in his wake, her only option to follow him, just as always. 


End file.
